We could call it something boring, I suppose
by 142staircases
Summary: Lily and James go to Petunia's wedding. HUZZAH! Friendshipfic.


A/N: This is not the story of James and Lily getting together. It is the story of how they became friends. It's happy. So read it.

Disclaimer: nu-huh. nope. NO. not even close.

That summer, the one before their seventh and final year at Hogwarts, was one of the best by a long shot. The excitement they felt clambering off the train, trunks and owls in tow, before being whisked off to James' house, never left them, and throughout the entire vacation, it filled them up, keeping them busy and happy.

After returning from the station,the four boys sat, laughing, around the small, round table. Sirius, sitting to James' right, had tilted his chair back on two legs, and had his hands clasped behind his head. James was composing a note to Lily while Remus, frowning slightly, planned their newest adventure for the next full moon; Peter, smiling at his best friends in admiration, crammed his mouth with as many chocolate chip cookies as possible.

The boys spent the majority of the summer gallivanting up and down England. One particularly exciting escapade was a drunk James picking a fight with a tall, pallid man (they thought he looked like Snivellus) who turned out to be a vampire. The boys barely made it out of that situation alive, but the next morning they had forgotten their fear and laughed about the predicament James had got them all into. They flew Sirius' motorbike all over the country. They took particular joy in causing quite a ruckus by whooping high in the air, scaring the Muggles down below.

However, by far the most amazing adventure, feat, happening of the summer was the correspondence that sprang up between Lily and James. It seemed that in his letters, Lily could forget (maybe because it didn't show as much) James' supposed "big-headedness." Or maybe he had deflated his head a bit… or maybe she was giving him another chance… or maybe she was letting herself see his nice side. Whatever it was, they got along fine. More than fine actually, they were on the verge, at last, of friendship.

Lily was helping to prepare for Petunia's wedding, so many of their letters discussed this momentous event in Lily's sister's life.

_James (wow, I'm actually not calling you Potter or throwing something at you. Quite a first),_

_Here's more on the wedding. It's going quite terribly actually. Petunia is driving me insane. She is absolutely crazy about this wedding! Having conniptions, I swear. Just yesterday she showed me my dress. I was almost apoplectic with rage, but I had to contain it and keep calm for her, as Mum puts it, "special day." I'm a bridesmaid you know; I don't understand how Mum forced Tuney into that one; Tuney hates me. I have no idea, no __clue, what Tuney's thinking! Well, actually I do. The bride always has to look the best so Tuney's making us where these absolutely horrid dresses. They're so disgusting. They're yellow. Not a nice creamy one, you know, more of a, catsick, went through the wash too many times sort of white. And as if that's not enough, they have polka dots on them. And not just any polka dots mind you (this is Petunia we're talking about!) They're orange polka dots. I HAVE RED HAIR! Oh the clashing will be horrendous. I'm doing it with Vernon's sister Marge. She's a right fat pig you know. She looks like him except less Walrus-like because her mustache isn't as big as his._

_Hoping this letter made at least one person laugh,_

_Lily_

James chuckled when he read the letter. He wrote back a reply, still amazed at his luck. _Finally_ he was able to carry on a normal conversation with Lily; she had even stopped called him Potter. He was James now!

Their correspondence grew. Lily's descriptions of the wedding preparations, to which she had decided to invite him, entertained James. This invitation made him more excited than ever. James thought Lily's description of Marge screaming in pain while Lily waxed her mustache off particularly entertaining.

The week leading up for his departure to Lily's went much faster than James had expected. One minute he was hugging Sirius goodbye (in a very manly way of course), next minute he had apparated onto a jolly muggle street, lined with houses that all looked relatively similar. He walked down the road, blue overnight bag in hand, and kept walking until he reached number 7. He felt a little nervous so he pulled himself together quickly, checking his appearance and ruffling his already misbehaving black hair before ringing the doorbell. He heard the chimes echoing inside the house and then thundering footsteps rushing down the staircase. The door burst open Lily gave him a quick hug and a nervous hello before ushering him into the house.

The hallway was painted yellow and there was an oak banister leading to an upstairs. It was very clean and smelled like lemons. James looked at the pictures lining the wall, and gazed at one of a little redheaded toddler hugging a little blond haired girl.

"My sister, Petunia." Lily explained, "Oh, and our home usually isn't this clean, except Tuney's room. It's disgustingly neat. The house is only like this for the wedding." James nodded still admiring the photos. "Do you want to put your stuff upstairs? I'm sorry, but we're going to have to share a room because Marge is staying in the guest room. Vernon's on the sofa and there's no way Tuney would put up with me even for a night." Lily kept on chattering and James followed in her wake, reveling in the beauty of her voice, "Oh and I have to warn you. Tuney really doesn't like, you know, _our kind_, so if she's unbelievably rude to you, I'm really sorry. She just doesn't understand. It makes me really upset but she just hates magic and anything or anyone having to do with it. She thinks it's abnormal you see?" James nodded, listening to Lily's jabber, taking everything in quietly.

"Wait," he asked. "Did you say we're sharing a room?" He raised his eyebrows suggestively, he chuckled inwardly, he was turning into Sirius. They both laughed.

"Don't worry, not in the same bed." James made a sad face and they laughed again. "My parents brought up an old mattress from the attic, so, if that's okay…"

"That's fine, Lily. Anything's great!" But James' heart was leaping with joy. They were voluntarily living in the same house, the same room even, without mauling each other!

James threw his bag down on his mattress. He took in Lily's room. It was painted light green and it had a closet, a wardrobe, and a simple desk. It wasn't as clean as downstairs but it was still very neat.

"I like your room," he said.

"Thanks," she replied. She took him by the hand and led him down to meet the family. Lily's parents were lovely. Mr. Evans was tall and built. He wore glasses and a business suit and had red hair that was thinning. Mrs. Evans was Lily-sized but much more rotund and with blond hair and a flowered skirt and white blouse. Petunia, who looked like a platinum horse, was just as nasty as Lily said. Marge and Vernon looked exactly how Lily described them, a couple of incredibly rude walruses with just enough braincells to string several mono-syllable words together. Marge grunted as a greeting, Petunia said hello and stuck out her hand, wiping it on her hot pink cocktail dress after James shook it as if trying to get rid of some germy disease. Vernon couldn't bring himself to say hello or shake hands so simply asked James,

"Is your hair always like that? You will be able to fix it for the wedding won't you?" Petunia butted it before James could say anything,

"Yes you must try to fix it. If it keeps sticking up like that we'll have to seat you in the back and I'm sure Lily wouldn't like that." She shot a mock, sad puppy face at Lily who looked pale and very taken-aback.

"Don't you dare talk to him like that," she said, very calmly and quietly but James could sense the anger radiating off of it.

"Don't worry about it, Lily. It's okay. I'll try my best with my hair, it has a mind of its own you see." He chuckled hoping they would laugh too but they didn't. Mr. and Mrs. Evan's shot each other nervous glances and Petunia and Lily shot each other daggers while Vernon picked his nose and Marge played with one of her many, very large, moles.

The wedding day arrived and at nine in the morning Lily, Mrs. Evans, Marge, and Petunia, set off to the salon to have their, hair, nails, and makeup done for the wedding, which was to start at noon. James sauntered downstairs to breakfast yawning, his hair shooting up in every direction. He joined Mr. Evans at the table and helped himself to a piece of toast. They talked for several minutes before Vernon came into the room, stretching and scratching his enormous belly. The talking ceased. Soon after Vernon's entrance, James went upstairs to avoid Vernon's rude comments and lay on his air mattress reading for a couple minutes until Lily came back.

As soon as she returned, she marched straight to her closet, with a now-or-never look on her face to fetch her dress and change for the ceremony. She turned around holding the bright orange dress to her. It was long with puffy sleeves. The bodice part of the dress, along with the polka dots, had silver sequins stitched all over it. The bottom of the dress was gathered into a huge, lacy, pouffy, ribbony mess. There was an enormous fake yellow sunflower entwined in the hanger. James clapped his hands to his mouth to make sure his laughter didn't escape. "Yes it's pretty horrible," Lily concluded, "Like I wrote you, it'll clash horribly with my hair."

"I love your hair," James said, trying to avoid mentioning the blazing orange abomination burning holes in his eyes. "What's the tacky flower for?"

"Oh that," Lily replied, her eyes were sparkling with held back laughter, "Tuney thought she'd be all original and classy and have a one flower bouquet. So this sunflower is it." James looked up at her green eyes and they both burst out laughing. It was the most ridiculous costume they had every seen. Lily went to the bathroom to put on her dress and James changed into his Muggle suit in the bedroom. He took out his wand and conjured a small sunflower out of thin air, and stuck it in his buttonhole.

"I thought we could match," he said when Lily returned. First he gaped at Lily and then they burst out laughing. As horrible as it looked on the hanger, it didn't look half that bad Lily. Somehow, it showed off her prettiness even more and made her red hair stand out even brighter.

After assuring each other they looked fine, the two linked arms and marched down the staircase. Well, James marched, he had to practically carry Lily because she was having trouble walking the stairs in her bright yellow high heels. She kept cursing and muttering under her breath, "How the hell am I supposed to walk down the aisle in these?"

They chuckled together and James said, "I guess I could just carry you like this. It would make Petunia and Vernon's day. Not only would a _wizard_ be carrying the red headed trouble maker down the aisle, but his hair would be sticking up everywhere, poking people, and her dress would be blinding the guests." James placed her carefully on her feet when they reached the bottom of the staircase. They linked arms and proceeded out back to where the ceremony was set up. James took his seat, in the back, as Petunia had wished, and Lily bustled off to get ready for the bridal procession.

When she walked down the aisle, right ahead of Marge, and then Petunia, James' breath stuck in his throat. Not just because Lily looked absolutely stunning (how she managed to pull off that dress he would never know) but also because he was almost choking trying not to laugh at Marge, who looked rather like an obese tiger. Her rolls of flesh practically oozed out of the dress and he chuckled as he noticed her strappy, heeled sandals straining to contain the cankles that were forced into them. His eyes followed the procession down to the altar, which was a revolting shade of neon flamingo pink. As she was passing him, Lily turned and winked at him; he sent her a thumbs up back. She had quite a hard time keeping her laughter concealed at the look on his face.

The ceremony started and Lily sneaked to the back to sit next to James. They focused their attention towards the altar, which turned out to be a huge mistake. Marge, the Maid of Honor, looked like she was about to bust out of her dress, and she was so pink in the face she almost matched the altar. Petunia looked like a snowball in her huge, puffy, gown. Vernon looked less walrus-like and more morbidly rotund penguin-like in his super-sized tuxedo.

Finally, the priest said, "You may kiss the bride." Vernon scooped Petunia up in his arms and penguin and snowball embraced each other. James and Lily could hardly hold back their laughter.

"How does she breathe, with that mustache all over her?" Lily choked, fighting back tears of mirth. James was wheezing with silent giggles,

"I don't know, but I hope we don't have to call those Muggle healers or anything."

At the reception, they sat at a table in the back joking with each other over the wedding ceremony. The food was served and they ate well. Then, it was time for the best man speech. Vernon's best man stood up, he was as equally large as Vernon and James recognized him as the man who had been making eyes at Marge all through the ceremony. He shared this piece of wisdom with Lily who had scooted her chair right next to his and they had another fit of ill suppressed silent sniggers. The best man droned on and on about how he and Vernon had been at school together and had then started this drill company, Grunnings. They locked eyes and Lily nodded her head out of the reception area around to the side of the house. James got the message and they snuck around to the front of the house and sat themselves down on a white lawn bench. They burst out laughing. All their held-in laughter from the wedding service and reception came forth and they were clinging to each other for support. They finally stopped wheezing with glee and hilarity, and leaned back against the back of the lawn bench, panting for air. When they finally had their breath back they sat up, and James was overjoyed that they were finally friends.


End file.
